Selling Hitler (1991/Acorn DVD Set)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C+ Episodes: B
The
Holocaust, WWII, the Nazis, and just about everything else associated with the
period from the rise of the Third Reich in the 1930’s to the end of the war in
1945 are all big business. From those
who rightfully assert the Holocaust’s importance to history, to those who
ludicrously deny its happening, there is money to be made. Everyone can agree that Adolf Hitler sits at
the nexus of this phenomenon, the hundreds of hours of footage of him leading
the Nazis into a world war that cost millions of lives can be so compelling as
to make it difficult for the viewer to look away.
It stands
to reason that in the decades following the war, callous profiteers might try
to take advantage of this shameful period in Germany’s history. No greater example of this exists than the
story of the Hitler Diaries. A hoax
perpetrated in 1983 by German forger Konrad Kujau, the Hitler Hoax included
more than forty volumes purported to be Hitler’s personal diaries. When they were revealed as fakes, several
careers were ruined, and Kujau and the German journalist Gerd Heidemann were
sentenced to forty-two months in prison on various charges.
Selling Hitler tells this sordid tale in five
episodes. Produced in 1991, Acorn Media
has released it in a two-disc set along with a short documentary on the hoax. True to the actual events, Selling Hitler introduces an edge of
dark humor into the production that helps underscore the desperate avarice that
drove these men to perpetrate such an act. Jonathan Pryce makes an excellent Gerd
Heidemann, a once great journalist searching for any sort of life-line to pull
himself from the mire of a stalled career. Alexei Sayle strikes just the right pitch as
the forger, Kujau, injecting just a bit of the zaniness that made him so
successful on the classic Young Ones comedy show.
These
episodes feature a great ensemble cast, including Doctor Who’s Tom Baker as Manfred Fischer, the editor of the German
periodical Stern that so unwittingly pushed the diaries’ authenticity. The excellent casting and solid execution make
the re-telling of this absurd but true tale well worth watching.
- Scott Pyle
